Their story wasn’t the usual one. Destiny had no plans to sustain their relationship for long…is what he said.

He always felt that their fights, their inability to spend time together and the distance between them were all signs that they shouldn’t be together.

She never blamed destiny and strongly believed that they could make it work through mutual efforts. Alia and Parth met through a mutual friend and had a virtual relationship for almost a year.

But they were so deeply into each other that neither of them could feel the distance between them.

He was all that she wanted, everything she had envisioned her ‘soulmate’ to be. Maybe he felt the same, maybe he didn’t. All she knew was she would do her best to keep their relationship intact forever.

They waited for a year before they could finally meet and turn their virtual hugs into real ones. He was visiting her city and had planned to stay with her for two days.

Everything was magical and they were effortlessly comfortable in each other’s company as if they’d known each other for ages.

Alia realized that she had never felt this way before and was living the best day of her life. However, there was one thing about Parth that bothered her the most.

He never wanted her to share anything about their relationship with any of her friends nor was he interested in sharing anything with his friends.

It bothered him so much that he stopped talking to her just before he was about to board his train and depart. They were at the station, standing in silence and she couldn’t bear that he wasn’t speaking to her at all.

Who knew when they would meet next or whether they would meet at all.

She tried hard to convince him, to the extent that she even promised to stop discussing anything about them with her friends. She could not stop the tears running down her cheeks.

But he stood there; unmoved, less concerned about Alia but more concerned about people staring at her crying.

She soon forgot about that incident and preferred to remember only the special memories they had created together. They sorted out their differences and could not wait to spend time together again.

She would often ignore their fights and deal with them by surrendering even when she knew that she couldn’t always be wrong.

One day he expressed anger over a guy from her college keeping his hand on her shoulders while posing for a group picture. She knew his behaviour was irrational this time.

He had often displayed a similar level of discomfort whenever she hung out or posed with her other guy friends. Was she a property that could not be touched by anyone but him?

Had he claimed all rights to her by taking away hers?

Did this make her disloyal towards him? She knew the answers well but thought that someday, she would be able to make him realize that he was wrong.

After a few months, their fights started turning bitter. This time it was Alia who initiated the arguments.

The reason was his parents who had started looking for a bride for him.

She urged him to stop them. She cried herself to sleep when he ignored her by answering ‘Things are not under my control’. She wanted to shout, “Of course things ARE under YOUR control and you can stop your parents if you want to.”

No parent would force (especially their son) to get married against his will and that too when he was not even settled. Yet, Alia stood by him and persuaded him to keep trying. She had no idea what was happening on the other side.

She didn’t even know if Parth intended to put efforts for her or if he was planning to give up.

She knew it was time for her to leave but something inside her told her to stay for one last time, to be by his side because he was also going through a tough time.

One day, when she asked again about the situation, he responded coldly by saying, “I can’t answer all that, I need space. I don’t want to talk to you Bye.”

She felt like something hit her so hard that she could not feel anything.

She kept staring at her phone screen and re-reading his text. She was not angry with him.

She was disappointed in herself because she knew she trusted the wrong person and way too much.

She knew Parth did not have the courage to hold her hand until the end. She blamed herself for every wrong decision she had made.

Three months had passed and there was no response from Parth. Millions of unanswered questions crossed her mind. She knew he would not be half as hurt as she was.

He didn’t even care at least to check if she was doing fine. All that he cared about was his problems, his family, his marriage, his job and so on.

Alia realized that she was never a part of anything.

The only day she expected a call or text from him was on her birthday. She had no idea about the shock she was about to receive. No, he didn’t call or text her on that day. Nor did he visit her.

Instead, it was Alia who ended up texting him on the next day requesting him for closure. She gathered the courage to ask him about his status on getting married.

The 3-word reply she received was powerful enough to break her into pieces that would take years to be mended again.

All he said was ‘I am engaged’. At the moment, all she could think was what had she done to deserve all this. She loved him truly and would have done everything to keep him happy.

Didn’t she deserve to be informed about his engagement? Was he scared that he would hurt her if she knew the truth? But he had already hurt her so much that she didn’t expect anything.

All she wanted was an answer; a closure and the satisfaction that he tried his best to convince his parents. But she got none from him.

From that day, she decided to never look back and struggled to move on. She knew it wouldn’t be as easy as her friends told her it would be.

All she knew was that she had people around who would go to any extent to make her happy. She could not let them down.

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